jane dark's sugarhigh!

How we think what

One of the conveniences of an election year (now two years long!) is how easy it is to evaluate world events: by their impact on the presidential race. That chat with the Pope, that unemployment news, that guy in a hood standing on a box being threatened with fatal electrocution -- what're they going to do to the numbers?

In making this the issue of necessary remark, it allows, say, the New York Times to have the same relationship to ethics that Billboard has to aesthetics: it can only be considered using a sales model. It may indeed be appropriate to suggest that "the election" doesn't exist to elect a President but to safely quarantine social justice within the market's reasoning.

Developments in the listening test:

1) Body Language, Kylie Minogue
2) Uh Huh Her, PJ Harvey
3) Here For The Party, Gretchen Wilson
4) So-Called Chaos, Alanis Morissette
5) Under My Skin, Avril Lavigne

notes: a day later, I like all five records less. Having to actually reckon with B-side balllads will do that. Kylie's A-side remains monumental.